Fed Vice Chair Brainard is ‘reassured’ by inflation report

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard said she was encouraged by last week’s U.S. inflation report, which pointed to slower price increases, and said the Fed would likely soon reduce the size of its interest rate hikes. Brainard’s comments, during a discussion at Bloomberg, were more positive toward the inflation report than were those of several of her Fed colleagues last week. Some central bank officials have sought to temper the stock market’s ebullient response to last week’s better-than-expected inflation report, which suggested that the rampant price spikes of the past 18 months were slowing.